§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence on what(a) date he was informed of the establishment of a judicial inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday and the appointment of Lord Saville, (b) how many self-loading rifles were submitted for ballistic testing to the Widgery Inquiry, (c) how many of those rifles are available with their original barrels for examination, (d) on what dates were batches of those rifles sent for the fitting of new barrels and for destruction and (e) who was responsible for the decision in each instance; and if he will make a statement. [108485]
§ Mr. HoonThe Government decision to set up a new inquiry into Bloody Sunday and the appointment of Lord Saville of Newdigate to chair the Tribunal of Inquiry was announced by the Prime Minister in the House of Commons on 29 January 1998.
The Bloody Sunday Inquiry believe 29 self-loading rifles (SLRs) were submitted for ballistic testing during the Widgery Inquiry to the Department of Industrial and Forensic Science. It is not possible to say how many have retained their original barrels; it is highly probable that they would have been re-barrelled at some point during their operational lives, in which case their forensic value would be substantially reduced. Detailed records were not kept of repairs to SLRs and no record was kept of whether a rifle had been re-barrelled, or how many times this may have occurred. The SLR was declared obsolete in November 1997 and authority to commence destruction was given in January 1998. SLRs were therefore recalled for disposal in line with this policy. By the end of January 2000 approximately 116,000 rifles had been disposed of out of a total of 144,000.
A list of 29 partial serial numbers, relating to the rifles fired on Bloody Sunday, was sent by the Inquiry to the MOD on 1 September 1999. From the information available it was not possible to identify the rifles until 29 September 1999. Of the 29, 14 were identified as having been issued for destruction on the following dates: 26 January 1998, 13 February 1998, 8 April 1998, 29 April 1998, 30 April 1998, 3 June 1998, 29 June 1998, 10 August 1998, 17 August 1998, 22 February 1999, 29 March 1999, 23 August 1999 and two on 24 September 1999. Ten rifles were identified as having been sold to private companies, leaving the five in the possession of the MOD. Despite an embargo on the movement of the remaining five, two of these rifles were destroyed on 26 and 28 January 2000.
Thus 24 of the rifles were disposed of as part of the routine disposal programme at a time when they could not be identified as Bloody Sunday rifles from available MOD records. That two rifles have been destroyed since is a matter of deep regret and an investigation has been launched by the Chief Constable of the Ministry of Defence Police to which officers from the West Mercia Constabulary will be seconded. The Bloody Sunday Inquiry will be invited to send an observer. The remaining three rifles have been secured and the Bloody Sunday Inquiry has been given assurances about their safe keeping.
649W
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what recent representations have been made to the Northern Ireland Office regarding proposals for a fresh inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday; and what response his Department has made. [108486]
§ Mr. HoonMy Department was closely involved in considering the need for a fresh inquiry into Bloody Sunday and it has co-operated fully with the Tribunal of Inquiry chaired by Lord Saville. I am withholding details of internal discussion and advice under Exemption 2 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.